Note: this is Part 7 of a series. Links to the first six parts appear below.

Four of our children were in a production of The Wizard of Oz last month. To prepare for auditions we watched the classic movie starring Judy Garland as Dorothy.

I have no idea how many times I’ve watched it.

But there was one scene I had completely forgotten.

As Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion make their way down the yellow brick road, the Wicked Witch hatches a plan.

“Poppies! Poppies! Poppies will put them to sleep!”

A field of fragrant pink flowers blankets their path to the Emerald City, obscuring the yellow brick road completely.

They run for a while, but eventually Dorothy, Toto, and the Lion fall asleep, just short of their desired destination.

It takes the intervention of the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, to get them back on track.

It is all too easy to forget why we’re here or what we’re doing.

Life is full of poppy fields—good things, beautiful things, sometimes poisonous things—that distract us from our mission.

And some of those fields are tailor made for us by the evil one, the enemy of our souls.

For me, the raison d’être is a tool of intervention.

It wakes me up, reminds me who I am, and guides me towards the Emerald City—the calling God has for me.

I’ve shared this tool with you as a journaling exercise over several weeks. By way of review, here’s what I’ve covered:

Now to wrap up this series, I’ll share with you how I use this tool as part of my regular rhythm.

1. Every day

The part of my raison d’être that shows up most often is the preamble.

You may recall that the preamble includes your favorite sentence prayers. And that’s what I use every day.

They may show up as fire extinguisher prayers, as one of my teachers used to call them.

When I notice anxiety, fearfulness, worry, dread, sadness, or hardness, these prayers remind me of God’s presence and love.

As I described before, I breathe through these prayers to calm my heart, settle my body, and remember that God is near.

These are also intentional prayers that I pray as part of my daily reflection.

I haven’t written about this practice yet, and now is not the time to go too deep here.

In short my daily reflection is a five minute exercise at the beginning and end of the workday to direct my attention Godward while I work.

Sentence prayers help me experience God’s presence and love at the start of each daily reflection.

2. Every week

This may be the most important of the three practices.

Each week—normally Sunday night or Monday morning—I conduct a weekly review.

I begin by looking at the previous week, celebrating wins, marking progress on goals, writing down what I learned, and identifying areas for growth.

I end by looking at the upcoming week, reviewing annual goals, previewing appointments, blocking out time for deep work, looking ahead to future commitments, and choosing my three most important projects for the week.

At the center of this rhythm I reread my raison d’être.

It is crucial to my weekly review since it takes me out of the fray and presents a 30,000 foot view of my life.

Often I’ll read it aloud. While I’m not trying to memorize it, I do want to embed it deeply in my mind and heart. To that end I use as many faculties as possible to drill it down, not just seeing it but speaking and hearing it too.

And as I read I’ll revise.

I cannot stress this enough. Your raison d’être is never a finished product.

The Spirit is constantly at work guiding, warning, directing, nudging us in the way he wants us to go.

I use my raison d’être to track those nudges.

And if something doesn’t fit my form, I’ll write it somewhere, anywhere, and figure out where it goes later.

I don’t want to lose any sense of what he is calling me to be and do.

3. Every other year

I use my raison d’être for two years. Then I start over from scratch.

Yep, I rewrite the whole thing.

In fact 2022 marks the end of a two-year cycle. So I’m about to write it again.

This will be my fourth time.

A total overhaul accomplishes a few things for me.

For one, it keeps my raison d’être from getting stale and static, a dusty document that marks an earlier movement of God in my life but which doesn’t translate to my present situation. Starting over forces me to rethink the whole thing.

A rewrite also honors the changes in my life brought about by divine providence. Whether that is a job transition, new opportunities for ministry, or children growing into adulthood, my life is quite different than it was two years ago.

You may want to rewrite it every year, but I find two years to be a reasonable interval for this intense work while keeping it tethered to my current circumstances.

To anticipate a question, no, I do not refer to my old raison d’êtres when I write a new one, at least not intentionally.

In other words, I might recall the wording of a previous one, but I do not actively consult it.

Typically I wait about six months before looking back at an earlier version. This guardrail keeps me doing the work with a focus on the present—where God has me now, not where he had me before.

Writing your own raison d’être is a lot of work.

But the rewards are enormous.

To help you write your own I created a Google doc to use as a template.

Just click this link and click File > Save a copy. Once you do, you’ll have your own version to fill in.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is great for this kind of work.

So if you’ve been holding off, do yourself a favor and get started today!

And drop a comment below to let me know how it’s going!

On Mission Every Day—Three Simple Practices to Keep Your Calling in Focus